Insider Report May 2025

Curated Enterprise Communications News and Insights from May 2025

Featured

The wave of tech layoffs sweeping across the industry can be partially attributed to AI. We know this because various firms keep bragging about it. Dell eliminated 12K positions as it pivots to AI infrastructure (and edge computing). A Salesforce executive stated that its AI agent solutions have alleviated some hiring needs. Duolingo and Chegg are thinning their workforces under the banner of “AI-first” initiatives. Microsoft sent mixed messages with its 3% RIF this month: AI is not replacing humans, but it is using AI to increase efficiency. Not every job cut is caused by AI. But they aren’t all financial hardships either. 

We appear to be in an AI stalemate. This new tech is consuming all of our power, but that’s OK because it will eliminate all of our jobs. Hmmm. 

But a bigger problem in 2025 needs more attention. AI isn’t reliable enough to replace humans (yet). It’s amazing and miraculous when it does work, but it fails spectacularly and often. Hallucinations have no apparent rhyme or reason. There is no rule-based decision tree. The model does not store facts. Instead, it generates truths and fictions based on learned statistical patterns across billions of weight values. Recent studies from Stanford and Anthropic show hallucination rates between 19% and 58%, with domains such as law and medicine showing the highest failure rates.

As we transition to AI agents, hallucinations move from words to actions. A misread instruction. Wrong file path. A flawed API call has real-world consequences — consequences that cannot be understood or explained. When traceability collapses, control becomes an illusion. Perhaps this is why the “buy now, pay later” firm Klarna is now paying for its move to replace staff with AI last year. Its CEO confessed that quality also matters. 

AI may improve soon, but at least for now, we have a conundrum. We want AI to increase efficiencies, but not to the extent that it replaces humans. Tech firms often promise to free up resources for more important tasks, but staffing levels tend to revert to just the right amount of neglected tasks. 

Meanwhile, AI will likely replace many jobs. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said this month that AI could “wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs” in the next few years (see GoodReads). Many professionals agree, and it’s a significant factor driving enterprise interest and sector investment. There is a strong argument that the world is going to become far more efficient. 

Tractors made us super efficient at farming. Factories gave us super-efficient industries, and AI will make those and everything else orders of magnitude more efficient. This super efficiency will come with super unemployment. This also occurred with tractors and factories, but on a much smaller and slower scale. 

Efficiency hasn’t been particularly good for Americans. Over the past 50 or so years, we have experienced impressive productivity gains from computers, networks, and other technologies. Yet, somehow, the workweek is no shorter, and most Americans are no better off. Adjusted for inflation and housing costs, Americans have held remarkably financially steady over the past 50 years. Meanwhile, public education and healthcare are in decline. 

Displaced workers don’t buy new laptops, upgrade cloud licenses, or fund the next-gen of SaaS. There’s a reckoning ahead. 

General News

Tariffs Don’t Matter: Sequoia Capital hosted AI Ascent with about 150 AI leaders, including Jensen Huang and Sam Altman. The partners from Sequoia presented their insights on how applications pose the most opportunity to capitalize on AI.

The good news is (paraphrased) that all of the macroeconomic stuff, like tariffs and interest rates, is noise that doesn’t matter. The rising tide of technology adoption absolutely swamps any volatility we are seeing in the markets, so ignore it. There is a tremendous sucking sound in the market, and nature hates a vacuum. Now is the time to go at maximum velocity toward AI. 

Anthropic Tentacles: Last November, Anthropic launched the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Support for MCP was limited to Claude Desktop, but now Anthropic supports integrations. This allows integrations that give Claude deeper context for collaboration and tasks. Initial integrations include Gmail, Slack, Zoom, Jira, Atlassian, Intercom, Asana, Square, PayPal, Google Docs, and thousands more via Zapier. Claude's research capabilities also expanded with an advanced mode that can search the web, Google Workspace, and connected Integrations for up to 45 minutes. Web search is now available globally for all paid Claude users.

This provides an interesting intersection with vCons, a concept Jeff Pulver has been championing. “vCons” stand for “virtualized conversations.” Pulver envisions vCon as a new file format designed to capture and structure conversations across channels. He believes vCons will unlock conversation for better insights, memory, and contextual awareness. Pulver views vCons as a foundational technology that will help structure unstructured conversational data.

Claude + vCons + Zapier can potentially transform business conversations into actionable live memory by creating searchable vCons with summaries, tags, and tasks that are cross-referenced with other data. Zoom audio, for example, allows Claude to identify patterns and provide insights for future meetings, evolving them into continuous decision-making tools. The Zapier integration extends Claude’s intelligence across many apps, potentially automating workflows and follow-ups based on conversation analysis.

Goog-Bye Google Search? The decline in Safari search traffic, as revealed by Apple’s Eddy Cue this month, signals a shift toward AI-powered search. This poses a threat to Google’s search dominance and ad revenue, and immediately caused a significant drop in Alphabet’s stock value.

The explanation is AI-powered results, which Google is also now providing. Instead of searching for links, users are asking questions that AI simply answers. A single query to an AI chatbot can, in some cases, replace multiple traditional searches. 

Google’s current business model relies on its search engine being the primary destination, generating ad revenue from user clicks on links. This shift in user behavior threatens not only Google’s ad-driven model but also the revenue streams of publishers and others who rely on click-through traffic. For years, marketers have been driving traffic to websites, but this practice may be doomed. Websites are for orders, not shopping. SEO? Why? 

The expectation for instant, accurate, and convenient information delivered directly by AI agents, without the need for clicks or ads, represents a fundamental change in how users seek information. Cue also indicated that Apple is evaluating the integration of more AI search into its ecosystem of devices. Google is going through a tough period. It has lost three antitrust cases, and it may be forced to sell assets such as its Chrome browser and ad-exchange marketplace. On the other hand, Google has been increasing its appearances in the Insider Report (AI and CX). 

FCC Dials Up Attacks: On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver covered President Trump’s attacks on the media, with FCC assistance. Trump’s appointed FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, has publicly stated his intention to advance the president's agenda. In theory, the FCC is not to promote a president’s agenda. Although the president appoints the commissioners, the FCC is under Congress. The FCC is structured to operate independently of the executive branch. 

Carr has initiated investigations into all major broadcasting networks, excluding Fox. Simultaneously, Trump has filed lawsuits against numerous news organizations that have criticized his policies. Some believe the aim is to encourage settlements and influence future coverage. Oliver cited national and local instances where the FCC’s control over broadcast licenses has encouraged settlements. He cautioned that the government was “controlling criticism,” characterizing this as “to put it bluntly authoritarianism.”

Gaining Traction: Last month, we remarked how Google is gaining traction. It’s been very active in AI and CX. We are seeing more Meet links in calendar appointments. Google remains weak in telephony. With Dialpad deferring its IPO, a quick acquisition could make sense; however, do non-AI-driven acquisitions still occur? 

This month, we noticed ServiceNow keeps popping up. The company hosted its annual Knowledge event, and CEO Bill McDermott made headlines by positioning his platform as the AI operating system for the agentic automation of the future — any hyperscaler, any data model, any system of record, and any LLM. McDermott believes traditional CRM and other applications are becoming obsolete. ServiceNow’s AI software revenue has crossed $250M in annual contract value. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, presented at Knowledge. 

Separately, Zoom announced a CC integration with ServiceNow CRM and ITSM — an AI-first solution for customer service and IT support. Bill McDermott sits on Zoom’s BoD. Cisco’s CPO, Jeetu Patel, interviewed ServiceNow CTO Amit Zavery: What aren’t we asking about AI? 

Losing Traction: We note that HP|Poly logos on social media sites are being replaced with HP logos. Poly for sale? 

AI News

OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s Startup: OpenAI has acquired io, the AI hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, in a $6.5B deal. Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, will lead OpenAI’s design efforts as the company ventures into consumer devices. Can’t decide between a press release or a blog post? Consider a nine-minute lovefest video. This move signals OpenAI’s ambition to integrate AI seamlessly into daily life, challenging traditional device paradigms.

All That Glitters Is AI: Both Google (Google I/O) and Microsoft (Microsoft Build) hosted developer conferences this month. Both companies are hyper-focused on AI. 

At Google I/O, the company announced a new “AI Mode” for search that offers conversational, Gemini-powered results across the US, while a $250/month “AI Ultra” subscription gives developers early access to its most advanced tools. Google also expanded AI Overviews to over 200 countries in 40+ languages, introduced Gemini Live for real-time, camera-based conversations on mobile devices, and showcased Project Mariner to advance agentic task automation. These announcements collectively signal Google’s intent to blur the lines between traditional search, smart assistants, and AI-driven personal agents. Google is investing heavily in AI — so heavily it’s difficult to determine where one ends and the next begins. Sort of how Microsoft handles its Copilots. 

Also, Google previewed Android XR smart glasses capable of conducting searches, taking photos, and performing live translations, developed in partnership with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. The glasses will be part of Project Astra, Google’s experimental “multimodal” agent that can respond and act on real-time voice queries and commands as it views the world through a mobile phone camera or smart glasses. 

At Microsoft Build, MS unveiled significant updates to its AI ecosystem, with a focus on boosting developer efficiency, AI agent orchestration, and the infrastructure needed for the growing agentic web. Key announcements included the development of GitHub Copilot into a coding agent, the introduction of Windows AI Foundry for on-device model deployment, enhancements to Azure AI Foundry, and the introduction of new standards such as NLWeb and expanded support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). 

Microsoft is transitioning its AI offerings from basic productivity features into a comprehensive agentic AI ecosystem, encompassing everything from LLM training to enterprise orchestration. By investing in protocols like MCP and NLWeb, as well as platform-level tools such as Foundry, Copilot Studio, and Azure AI, Microsoft aims to establish standards for the creation, management, and deployment of AI agents. This initiative offers developers, businesses, and research institutions a flexible, secure, and open framework for creating the next generation of intelligent applications.

Microsoft went beyond mere tool updates, signaling a fundamental shift away from the traditional internet. As Satya Nadella promised, the familiar app-centric model is evolving into a decentralized network of independent agents. Every app becomes an agent, every process becomes a workflow, and every developer becomes a conductor of intelligent machines. 

Big Beautiful AI: Amidst the focus on proposed Medicaid cuts and a controversial clause regarding federal court authority, a provision within the House-approved “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has largely gone unnoticed. This provision imposes a 10-year ban on state and local governments from creating or enforcing any laws or regulations related to AI.

The rationale behind this moratorium is to establish centralized, federal AI governance, preventing a fragmented landscape of state-specific rules. While the intention is logical, Congress has so far failed to develop substantial federal AI safeguards. Instead of a timely federal alternative, states are being told to cease their legislative efforts.

The absence of genuine federal guidelines, coupled with this decade-long freeze, risks creating an unregulated environment for AI. We are already witnessing problematic AI applications: discriminatory hiring systems, deepfake technology used for malicious purposes, and predictive policing tools that perpetuate racial bias. Additionally, social media platforms are increasingly affected by AI bots that spread misinformation and distort public discourse. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem very likely that any nation will be able to regulate or control AI innovation, especially as the US and China view AI as a winner-takes-all race. 

Cisco Strikes Oil: Cisco entered a multi-year AI partnership with Saudi Arabia, joining its HUMAIN initiative to accelerate the country’s AI development. Launched on May 12, HUMAIN focuses on AI infrastructure and services, aligning with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 to diversify its economy. The partnership aims to build the world’s most open, scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient AI infrastructure.

President Trump visited Saudi Arabia and signed $3B in investment deals with the country. Cisco CPO Jeetu Patel was there. Then Patel went back: two back-to-back trips in a span of 10 days. There, Cisco joined the Stargate UAE consortium. Patel signed the MoU alongside Peng Xiao from G42, Jensen Huang from NVIDIA, Sam Altman from OpenAI, Masayoshi Son from SoftBank, and Mike Sicilia from Oracle. They agree on a plan to construct a massive AI data center in Abu Dhabi. Cisco will provide advanced networking, security, and observability solutions to accelerate the deployment of next-generation AI compute clusters. Cisco will provide networking, security, and observability hardware and software solutions for OpenAI workloads, advancing AI infrastructure not just in the Middle East but globally.

Cisco also announced a series of strategic initiatives across all phases of the AI transformation in the region. These new initiatives employ Cisco’s trusted technology across the region’s AI infrastructure buildouts. 

Patel met with His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has led Abu Dhabi to a leadership position in AI. In a global first, residents of the UAE will soon gain free access to ChatGPT Plus through the OpenAI for Countries initiative.

Unprecedented Times: Mary Meeker is famous for her research and analysis of tech trends. Before founding Bond, Meeker ran Kleiner Perkins’ growth practice and backed companies like Facebook, Spotify, Ring, and Block (Square). Last week, she published a 340-page report on AI. The word “unprecedented” appears on 51 pages. She is generally referring to AI innovation and adoption metrics. For example, ChatGPT reached 800M users in 17 months: unprecedented. 

Despite significant investment and spending on AI, its financial returns haven’t yet materialized. It remains to be seen which of today’s AI companies will ultimately achieve sustained profitability and become the dominant tech players of the future. A few takeaways: 

1. China is leading AI development in many ways (including research, researchers, patents, and publications). China released three large-scale open-source AI models in 2025. 
2. AI model training costs are rising: Training costs are reaching billions of dollars. 
3. Open-source models are exploding: Meta’s Llama model had 1.2B downloads in 10 weeks, posting 3.4x growth in eight months; there’s been 33x growth on Hugging Face since March 2022.
4. India is ChatGPT’s second-largest market, and it accounts for the largest percentage of its mobile app users. 
5. Unprecedented CapEx: The capital expenditure of the big six US-based tech companies on AI was $212B (up 63% YoY). Data center spending has reached all-time highs. 
6. Physical world outpacing software: Applying AI to the physical world (autonomous vehicles, robotics, critical infrastructure, defense, agriculture, and more) is outpacing adoption of AI in software applications.

Meetings and AV

Teams Updates: May’s Teams updates include AI-identified screen content in recaps, live meeting agents, external file sharing in chat, and audio-based meeting summaries. Coming in August: a network strength indicator and phone features like Copilot without transcription and long-missing call waiting alerts. “Classic Teams” retires July 1. The constant update cycle keeps users advancing and distracts them from controversial changes like shifting biometric tagging from an opt-in process to opt-out. (See the Microsoft-NSW item in Goodreads below.)

EU Antitrust Drama Continues over MS Teams Bundling: The European Commission is unsatisfied with Microsoft’s unbundling of Teams from Microsoft 365, now probing whether a larger pricing gap ($9 vs $5) and extended interoperability guarantees (10 years) go far enough. A fine of up to 10% of the company's global turnover remains on the table. The outcome could redefine how bundled services are offered across SaaS platforms. Microsoft implemented the remedy as a proactive (hopeful) peace offering, but its most visible impact has been increased revenue. 

Google Meet Real Time Translations: At Google I/O 2025, the company demonstrated essentially the same real-time language translation in its Meet video calls that Microsoft’s interpreter agent has showed off for the last year. Real-time language translation appears to be becoming a table-stakes requirement. 

Logitech Expands Portfolio Down: Logitech introduced a new entry-level Microsoft Teams Rooms bundle. The kit includes the MeetUp 2, a Lenovo Tiny PC, and a custom Tap controller with a single USB-C connection. It’s among the first systems under Microsoft’s new “Entry-Level” Teams Room spec. Expected GA in July for about $3K.

Neat Updates OS, Cuts Frame Price and Adds Trade-Ins: Neat’s latest OS update has a new Speaker Focus mode and customizable BYOD cable instructions. The update also adds admin password protection for BYOD and App Hub, removes the BYOD beta label, and boosts speaker volume on Neat Board Pro. Neat has also lowered the price of its Neat Frame from $1,490 to $599! Neat appears to be repositioning Frame from trophy to mainstream device. Neat then announced a new Trade-Up Program offering up to 10% off new devices with the return of eligible video hardware through a simple partner-supported process.

Q‑SYS Gets Its Stack Together: At its mid-May Activate event, Q-SYS unveiled its new Full Stack AV Platform. The launch introduced three new Core processors, VisionSuite with native AI acceleration, and significant updates to the Q-SYS Reflect cloud management suite. The architecture now integrates multimodal I/O, distributed processing, and a cognitive cloud layer, offering unified control, analytics, and scalability across AV systems. The vision former CEO Joe Pham articulated years ago is finally taking real form, with Q-SYS showing how a modular, open, and IT-aligned AV platform can actually work at scale. After the Q-SYS Activate announcement, Sennheiser announced that its TeamConnect Ceiling Medium (TCC M) microphone for Zoom Rooms is certified with the new Q-SYS systems. 

Non-MDEP MTRoA Updates: The May 2025 update for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android adds the preview of Facilitator Agent, an AI tool for meeting scheduling and management. Other improvements include better Room Remote connectivity, broader camera and USB support, and new management tools like dynamic network routing. Microsoft also added calendar color coding and enhanced proximity join. While the focus remains on MDEP, updates for non-MDEP MTRoA continue — for now.

Cloudy With A Chance of PR: OpenAV Cloud is a new initiative to improve interoperable AV through APIs. The founding members are Sony, Panasonic, Legrand, Shure, BrightSign, and Xyte. Danto believes it’s mostly theatrics, but wishes them luck in their endeavor. 

Another InfoComm, Another Tech Show: The odd-numbered-year Orlando edition of InfoComm kicks off its expo on June 11, and it’s already shaping up to be a hotspot for fresh announcements and product debuts. Dave and David will be on the ground capturing PickHitz and bringing back the top stories. Expect what you’re expecting: more AI, more automation, new cameras, slicker video gear, tighter peripheral integration, and LOTS of humidity.

There are numerous rumors that this will be the last Orlando version of the show, with future ones planned for Vegas. There are always rumors like that, and it’s likely bunk. There are attendees who can’t or won’t go to Vegas, which is why it remains likely InfoComm will alternate between the two locations.

Beam Me Out of This Hypestorm, Scotty: Google has rebranded its long-teased Project Starline as Google Beam, an AI-based 3D video system aiming to recreate face-to-face presence using light field displays and multi-camera capture. It promises lifelike eye contact, gesture fidelity, and real-time translation in enterprise meetings. The rebrand likely signals HP will launch its solution at Infocomm. 

After years of hype and behind-the-curtain demos, Beam now risks becoming the tech industry’s equivalent of a vaporware unicorn — too long anticipated and overblown to ever meet expectations. Even if they ever eventually do release it, it seems better suited for demos than mass adoption.

LG’s PHOLED Frontier: LG Display has announced a breakthrough “dream OLED” panel that uses a hybrid two-stack structure combining blue fluorescence and blue phosphorescence. The new panel reduces power consumption by around 15% while maintaining performance and stability. This marks a major milestone in solving the industry’s long-standing challenge of efficient blue PHOLED technology. It could significantly boost OLED adoption in IT displays and high-efficiency AV applications.

Teams Panels Tell All: Microsoft Teams Panels now display real-time room occupancy by integrating signals from Teams Rooms devices and compatible occupancy sensors. This enhancement enables users to determine if a room is physically occupied, even if it's not reserved. This was table stakes two decades ago in AV, so MS doesn’t get any trophies for clearing the feature request backlog. 

Barco ClickShare and Sennheiser: Sennheiser and Barco have expanded their joint Try & Buy program to the United States, following success in Europe. US organizations can now try a TeamConnect Bar along with a Barco ClickShare unit for 30 days at no cost. Additional bundles from the two firms are expected. 

No More Mr. Soft Bar: Huddly has launched the C1, a new AI-powered videobar aimed at small to mid-sized rooms, featuring a 4K wide-angle lens and a 16-mic beamforming array. Unlike recent industry trends favoring soft, fabric-covered designs, the C1 revives a sharp-edged, minimalist aesthetic that stands out. It marks a strong return to form for Huddly in both engineering and industrial design. Expect us to publish a review soon.

Customer Experience

NICE and AWS Align: NICE and AWS formed a strategic partnership focused on improving enterprise customer service automation. This collaboration combines NICE’s CXone Mpower AI platform with AWS services, including Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q Business, to unify service operations and optimize workflows. The availability of CXone Mpower in AWS Marketplace streamlines the process for businesses to find, buy, and implement advanced CX AI. Purchasing through AWS Marketplace also allows organizations to leverage their current AWS investments and simplify procurement. The arrangement comes soon after NICE struck a partnership with ServiceNow. These plays-well-together moves represent a shift for NICE, likely related to its new CEO. More to come after #NICEi2025 in Las Vegas. 

Emerald 8x8: 8x8 solidifies its dedication to Ireland by becoming a Gold corporate sponsor of the Customer Contact Management Association (CCMA) Ireland for 2025. This strategic alliance underscores 8x8’s commitment to Ireland as a vital hub for innovation and supports its global objective to provide businesses with advanced AI-powered customer experience (CX) solutions that drive success in today’s customer-centric landscape.

Dialpad Calls Minority Report’s Precogs: Dialpad’s new Agentic AI platform aims to deliver “pre-emptive customer service” by enabling autonomous systems that anticipate and address customer needs before they arise. While the vision is ambitious, the suite seems typical, with features like real-time agent coaching, AI-generated CSAT scoring, and CRM integrations. Applications include order tracking, appointment management, and recruitment screening. 

Talkdesk Express: Express is a new offering aimed at businesses with 50 or fewer employees. It’s a simple, e-direct online offer featuring robust features with a simplified setup. The initial, no-commitment price per month includes 25 agents. Separately, Td also announced an expansion of its verticals program with a solution aimed at utilities called Utility Cloud. A clever and underserved vertical. 

SIGNALCON: Twilio hosted its Signal event this month. This year’s speakers included executives from leading brands such as Clear, Best Buy, Rocket, and Vineyard Vines. The event also featured a prerecorded, virtual fireside chat with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. 

A significant highlight of the keynote was the formal announcement of a multi-year strategic partnership with Microsoft. This alliance centers on integrating Twilio’s customer engagement APIs with Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, allowing developers to build multimodal, cross-channel AI agents that plug directly into business workflows.

This is a clever alliance. Microsoft needed more advanced CPaaS capabilities for CX, and Twilio needs everything and anything. The partnership aims to simplify procurement processes and promote joint innovation in the field of agentic AI. Key areas of innovation include creating multi-channel AI agents for customer engagement, enhancing contact center operations with AI agents that assist live agents via Twilio’s Agent Copilot capabilities, and developing multimodal solutions to improve digital business-consumer interactions.

#Brain2050: Content Guru hosted brain 2050 this month, an event that explored CX and AI across three acts: Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today. “Inspiring” speakers and panellists included Stefan Hyttfors, Jason Bradbury, Matthew Syed, Sheila McGee-Smith, Maggie Philbin OBE, Leigh Hopwood, Dave Michels, Alex Williams, Victoria Cheeseman, Edward Winfield, and Sean Taylor DL. Highlight Reel.

CX Day: May 15 is now Customer Experience Day — according to Nextiva. The company is attempting to pull a Hallmark and create a global day to recognize CX. May 15 is also National Chocolate Chip Day. AWS observed Customer Experience Day on April 30. 

UC and Messaging

New Mitel.com: A new website was inevitable on Mitel’s journey to enhance the user experience. The site focuses on the IT leader as the hero. They opted for the IT leader because Mitel wants to empower the tech suite with better solutions for UC, CX, and critical communications. 

RCS News: 

• • Infobip’s latest Messaging Trends Report revealed RCS messaging continues to skyrocket. Infobip analyzed more than 530B B2C interactions on its platform and found a fivefold increase in global RCS traffic, with North America alone seeing a 14x surge.

• Clerk Chat launched the first-ever simultaneous RCS messaging deployment across Google, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, turning static SMS alerts into dynamic, AI-powered experiences. This marks an upgrade in carrier messaging, enabling more interactive and transactional capabilities without relying on third-party apps. 

• RCS messaging is gaining significant traction in the US, with Google confirming over 1 billion messages sent daily. More than half of that volume (613M messages/day) comes from T-Mobile and its extended family of brands, including Metro, Mint Mobile, and Google Fi.
• This year, RCS has become widely available and will threaten SMS and WhatsApp. It creates an opportunity for the agile to beat the giants. Earlier this month, Amazon Connect expanded WhatsApp Business messaging and SMS to more AWS regions. Microsoft recently enabled SMS in Teams. 

Click, Nope: Teams Says No to Screenshots: Microsoft Teams will introduce a “Prevent Screen Capture” feature starting in July 2025. The feature will be supported across desktop, mobile, and web platforms, with participants on unsupported devices limited to audio-only access. This is annoying. Some mobile apps prevent users from copying text, forcing determined users to visit the website version instead. Preventing users from capturing what they are shown feels inappropriately intrusive, especially when watermarks can trace leaks. 

Zoom SN: Zoom and ServiceNow plan to integrate Zoom CX with ServiceNow CRM and ITSM to create an AI-first solution for customer service and IT support. This integration aims to provide agents with a unified workspace, personalized AI-powered experiences, and seamless collaboration tools. The companies believe the integration will improve efficiency and CX. The unified engagement will be available later this year via the ServiceNow Store. Note, the CEO of ServiceNow, Bill McDermott, is a board member of Zoom. 

Textellent Enhances SMS Integration Capabilities: Textellent announced new tech partnerships aimed at embedding its SMS marketing tools into broader business platforms, such as CRM and ERP systems. The move signals that niche communication tools are doubling down on integration rather than expanding into adjacent categories.

Agentics Gone Wildix: Wildix launched its agentic AI layer for UCaaS. The AI layer automates interactions across voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and web. The system interprets languages (13), references past exchanges, and applies contextual logic to guide each decision. It can be tailored to fit various workflows, including routing, booking, and managing surges. A no-code studio is used for configuration.

Dialpad icon: Changed its logo from “AI” to “d.” We can take Dp seriously again. 

The Business Section

Dmitry Netis (LI, email) of The Benchmark Company provides Insider subscribers with financial insights quarterly. Dmitry leads M&A advisory and serves as a Managing Director and Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking at Benchmark. Mr. Netis has been immersed in enterprise communications for over 15 years as one of the first Wall Street research analysts covering this space, serving institutional and private equity clients. Benchmark offers capital markets, private placement, VC investment, majority/minority recap, and M&A advisory services.

Every quarter we aim at capturing big trends related to macroeconomic activity and their impact to the overall cloud communications/CX sector, investor sentiment, vendor moves, and M&A. Depending on the news flow of each, each quarter may have a different tone to it. Macro is singlehandedly the most important factor. There is plenty of policy shifts and economic uncertainty in the market each day to make people anxious and wondering what’s next. For businesses, uncertainty is always a negative as it slows investment and spending decisions. As one public company CFO pointed out, the markets each day is a function of whether our President had enough hours of sleep the night before and how he’s feeling today. Many Wall Street economists are predicting the global economy to slow. The U.S. economy is toying with higher levels of inflation (due to tariffs) and slowing labor force participation (which hasn’t played itself out yet). European markets are faced with weaker growth, while deflationary cycle is now hitting Asia. China GDP projected at 4% or below.

April saw an incredible amount of volatility. The stock market experienced a violent sell-off due to the tariffs announced by the Trump administration on June 2, so called Liberation Day. Market participants marked it as a seismic change in global economic activity—one that is now more arbitrary, protectionist, and unpredictable. Many see it as a move from free trade and globalization to a new world which implies significant restrictions on trade in every direction, further isolating the U.S. from the rest of the world, something we haven’t seen since WW2. A reversal on trade policies came a week later, on April 11, when the S&P 500 gained 9.5% in one day, the 10th best day for the U.S. equity markets in the last century. Trump’s backing off—temporarily reducing the tariff rates and extending the timeline when they go in effect—was the major stimulus, causing the markets to rip. Traders on Wall Street were quick to coin a ‘new trade’ strategy called TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out).

April Showers Bring May Flowers. The month of May has made a 180-degree turn, setting new records, with the Nasdaq up 10% (its highest monthly gain since 1990), the Dow rising 4% and the S&P 500 gaining 6%. The markets are feeling relieved that the Trump administration appears to have backed off its trade war. Sentiment remains a bit jittery, but economic fundamentals have remained strong and there's hope that we've avoided a recession. Jerome Powell is warning that rates may have to stay higher for longer, but markets are already starting to look past his opinions. The next Fed Chair is almost certain to lower rates (Powell’s term expires in mid-2026). Trump wanted him to lower the rates in April in a standoffish public display.

Have we avoided a recession? The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has been sending warning signs for months: "If there's a recession, I don't know how big it will be or how long it will last. Hopefully, we'll avoid it. But I wouldn't take it off the table at this point." On the other end of the spectrum is BlackRock’s Larry Fink feeling somewhat content "But let me be clear, the U.S. economy is in good shape. The macro trends that we saw for the U.S. economy before the whole conversation of tariffs are still in place today…so there isn't systemic risk. There isn't a pandemic. I strongly believe, more than ever, the strength of the capital markets worldwide and the strength of the entire financial system is safe and sound." Despite the opinions on each side of this coin, investors remain cautious, and consumer sentiment remains soft. Many industry bellwethers calling on data that we see in wage and employment surveys is inconsistent versus what is really going on in the mind of the consumers on Main Street.

AGI’s SNR remains high. Shifting from macro perspectives to the industrial revolution (no pun intended), the one big trend that remains unrelenting each and every day is AGI (Agentic General Intelligence). All technology companies (software and hardware vendors combined) are rushing to make their bets to embrace, hedge, or circumvent its impact on their business models. The signal-to-noise ratio coming from AGI is indiscernible at the moment and likely to remain as such for at least the next few years.

AI is killing the economic engine of the web. Has anyone been paying attention to Cloudflare—the stock is up 144% YoY and 65% since the market retrenchment in early April. Cloudflare powers 80% of AI companies and 20-30% of the web. Its services include content delivery network (CDN), load balancing, DNS, DDoS, SSL/TLS encryption, and other web-related application performance and network optimization services. Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince is on record calling for a major disruption to Google’s search engine and internet monetization model, specifically pointing out that AI is disrupting the economics of the web—search, advertising, and e-commerce. Cloudflare is trying to figure out how to help AI companies with new monetization models. In a recent interview Prince noted: “AI is going to fundamentally change the business model of the web. The business model of the web for the last 15 years has been search…search drives everything that happens online.” The risk of zero-click searches—which happen when searchers get answers directly on the Google’s search page—has been rising with 75% of the queries answered without leaving the Google page. That means those links that Google serves you never get clicked—a negative trend for the publishers and SEOs, and those companies producing the original content. AI and its LLMs are accelerating the crisis by scraping far more content per user interaction than Google ever has, avoiding returning those searches to the original content creators, who can no longer derive value for their content. As a side effect, those creators are unlikely to create original content or serve them on the web. “This situation threatens the sustainability of the web as we know it”, Prince declared, noting that “AI companies are aware of the problem, but they can’t be the only one paying for content when everyone else gets it for free.”

Cloud Communications earnings recap.

UCaaS. 8x8, RingCentral earnings point to slowing growth, commoditization at play. Cloud-to-cloud migration efforts by usual suspects (MS Teams, Zoom, Dialpad, Nextiva, Aircall, Wildix) are shifting market share among the roughly 75 million global UCaaS users with fewer additions coming from on-prem. Whoever pays more to the “channel” gets the kill. 8x8 missed and lowered their forecast for the fiscal 2026. Needham and Barclays dropped coverage in April. 8x8’s total revenue in FY25 (March ending) decreased by 2% YoY and FY26 called for revenue to be flat to down 2%. Operating margin hovered around 9-10% of revenue, suggesting management isn’t too keen on squeezing more costs out in lieu of product development and vertical market focus that is required to drive future growth. Management noted that ex-Fuze (which is now less than 5% of total revenue), growth accelerated to 4.6% from 2.7% in the prior quarter. Investors are pondering whether to hand this leadership team another acquisition or be acquired, as the sector is bound to consolidate. UCaaS growth is in structural decline, whereas CCaaS is still growing in high-single/low double digits, according to Five9 and NICE results (8x8 generates roughly 25% of revenue from CCaaS). Other than the deleveraging story, which carries a ~$330M debt balance at the end of May (down from $550M two years ago), there wasn’t much to get excited about the quarter, nor build confidence that the growth is about to resume (both organically or inorganically). 

Ring’s quarter didn’t impress either. Other than profitability metrics (operating margins stood at 21.8% and guided up to 22.5% in FY26), growth remains elusive, slowing down to 5% YoY. Much of this growth is likely driven by new products and contact center deals, although that’s likely slowing too as NICE-related deals are being augmented/replaced by RingCX, which targets the low-end, smaller ticket sizes, and is still in its early days.

CCaaS. Five9, NICE – touting 9% or 12% organic growth in CCaaS. NICE delivered a solid quarter with revenue and EPS slightly ahead. Management raised EPS guidance and reiterated revenue at $2.93B at midpoint, representing 7% growth YoY. Consensus growth estimates for 2026 revenue suggest ~7% growth. Cash flows increased 12% and operating margins expanded to 30.5%, both at record levels. Cloud revenue grew 12% YoY. With this level of growth (in high single-digits, low-teens) it would be difficult for Genesys, Talkdesk or Dialpad to make a public debut in the near term, potentially setting a table for more M&A. Mitel and Avaya are on the block, but purely as a customer acquisition play, setting them up for possible cloud migrations. In the meantime, more blocking-and-tackling would be required until the AI component of vendors’ revenue begins to inflect in any meaningful way, demonstrating the real impact of AI transformation on the sector, i.e., customer adoption and pricing models that resonate well with customers. The momentum is already there. NICE’s AI and self-service revenue increased 39% YoY, though likely off small base. ServiceNow partnership, its integration of customer front and back-office systems and orchestration of end-to-end workflows, was a major topic on the earnings call. While the cross-pollination of CCaaS with CRM, which has been touted for years and remains a potent strategy (e.g., LiveVox acquired a small CRM provider before selling itself to NICE) no major moves have been witnessed so far. NICE is a market leader in all 3 categories it dabbles—CCaaS/WEM, Public Safety, and Fraud Management—and has a large war chest with $1.6B in total cash and investments. With a new CEO on board who hails from SAP, IBM, and PwC (major acquirers), it would not be surprising to see NICE take the lead in consolidating the CX industry or even spinning off the other divisions which investors are likely giving it very little credit for. We maybe at the crossroads again, where sum of the parts is bigger than the whole (activists would take notice). 

Five9 delivered a solid quarter, with revenue and EPS coming in ahead of estimates by a nice margin. Revenue in the March quarter (Q1) was up 13% on the heels of strong installed base and AI bookings. Guidance for the Q2, however, was slightly below consensus. Subscription revenue grew 14% YoY, and adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 19%. In April, Five9 went through another round of layoffs, affecting 4% of its workforce—the outcome of this RIF should drive consistent improvement on the bottom line for the rest of the year. 2025 revenue was guided at $1.14B at midpoint, in line with consensus. Out year estimates for revenue imply ~10% growth. Dollar-based retention rate for the last 12 months was reported at 107%, 2 points below the prior year period. Subscription revenue grew 14% YoY in the quarter, now comprising 80% of total revenue. Enterprise subscription revenue grew 20% and enterprise AI revenue saw an increase of 32% YoY. Like NICE, Five9 aligning closer with CRM vendors, showing a deeper integration with Salesforce to enhance AI-powered customer experiences, on the heels of launching of Five9 Fusion.

Zoom. Despite the beat-and-a-slight-raise on revenue and earnings, the overall sentiment was mixed coming off the earnings call. Total revenue in 1Q grew ~3% YoY to $1.175 billion, roughly in line with consensus. The full year 2026 revenue was guided to about $4.8B, a growth of ~3%, also in line. Management highlighted "a more challenging and uncertain macroeconomic environment" impacting enterprise deal cycles, leading to a more "prudent outlook." Gross margins came in lower as the company continues to invest in AI (our assessment of this strategy is below). Net income grew 2% and free cash flow continues to set records, with an impressive margin of 39.4%. A notable positive development was the growth in customers spending over $100,000, which saw a double-digit increase of 11% YoY, the first instance of such growth since the prior year. 

• Zoom Contact Center continues to impress with revenue, according to Wall Street analysts, now in triple digits million in ARR, growing in high double digits. This ARR growth was higher than the 65% Y/Y customer growth, with management pointing to purchasing of higher priced bundles as more AI features introduced. 

• Zoom Phone revenue grew in the mid-teens, with significant adoption of its new integration with Microsoft Teams, by far showing most strength and share gains in Zoom Phone due to platform effects. 

Companion or Distraction? Zoom’s AI Bet Comes at a Price. It can’t be clearer to anyone watching that Eric Yuan has just put all his eggs in the AI basket. TP’s Dave Michels and David Danto covered “Fake Zoomtopia” last October, with the stories we would have wanted to see instead of the “only AI everywhere” messaging that was hammered. This over-rotation to AI perhaps is cannibalizing its own business and contributing to its slow growth in the near term, but one that is also difficult to argue about in the long haul. Plus, who would want to bet against Eric? To me this move is reminiscent of Reed Hastings pivot to streaming when 99% of Netflix’s business at the time was DVD rentals—a classic HBS case study that teaches us that if we want to be an undisputed market leader, we must not be afraid to disrupt ourselves. 

• The side effect. AI remains years out from contributing any meaningful revenue to Zoom’s $4.8B revenue franchise. Major RIFs last year and slowdown in sales and marketing budget are balanced against raising prices on most subscription tiers and making the freemium tier less attractive in terms of free minutes usage/features. Focus has been shifting mainly on enterprise, which is still in a single-digit growth rate with enterprise net dollar expansion rate inflection elusive. Enterprise revenue as of last Q represented 60% of total revenue and grew 6% YoY, up 2 points from a year ago period.

• Over-rotation to AI. Recent analyst commentary and financial reports from Bernstein and Morgan Stanley, both cited in post-earnings coverage earlier this year that Zoom’s declining meeting revenue was not simply the result of post-pandemic normalization, but a direct consequence of its reduced marketing and innovation focus on its bread-and-butter collaboration platform. Instead, resources and attention have been redirected toward generative AI initiatives like Zoom AI Companion, AI-powered sales tools, and customer experience offerings. 

• Share shifts. IDC’s 2024 market share report on enterprise communication platforms also noted Zoom slipping in relative market share to Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, both of which continue to emphasize core feature enhancements alongside their AI upgrades. In contrast, Zoom’s over-rotation toward AI is seen by some CIOs as premature, leaving basic meeting functionality, like breakout room stability, video quality under variable bandwidth, and persistent chat integrations, underdeveloped or ignored. The gamble is clear: Zoom is betting big that AI workflows will define the future of work. But in doing so, it is clearly undermining the very collaboration foundation that made it a verb.

Bring Your Own AI. Most CCaaS vendors (Five9, 8x8, Genesys, NICE) have begun to open up their platforms using a “Bring Your Own AI” approach, a strategy which we wholeheartedly support. Rather than building their own, closed “AI” systems and applications, these vendors are exposing their APIs to the AI developers and technology partners by getting their various multi-modal AGI integrations ready. This move should ultimately help vendors improve their valuations over time and help them hedge against the impact of commoditization. Those vendors that can cut through internal politics and enable faster on-boarding of AI developers and tools through their marketplaces and growing startup ecosystem, will ultimately win the race. The rise of Voice AI agents augmenting CCaaS/CX workflows can’t be underestimated—ElevenLabs, Synthflow, Retell AI, PolyAI, and Cresta, are the ones to watch.

Zendesk pushes into CCaaS. An interesting pivot for IT helpdesk software vendor, Zendesk, is pushing deeper into CCaaS with the acquisition of AI-powered CCaaS and voice solution provider Local Measure in February for a reported $100M. At its March annual partner conference, the company unveiled a new CCaaS platform, Zendesk for Contact Center. Local Measure is a close contact center partner of AWS, offering many of the same capabilities as Amazon Connect, just pre-packaged. Zendesk is expanding steadily from a CRM platform to QA, WFM, and support automation via acquisitions of Klaus, Tymeshift and Ultimate. Local Measure has ~60 customers globally. Previously, Zendesk partnered with Five9, NICE and Genesys/ININ and had its own voice offering for SMBs built on Twilio. It has played in the CCaaS space indirectly for well over a decade, but with AI transformation fledging, has now decided to move squarely into the space. Taking AI by the horns, Zendesk also announced a new agentic AI Hub platform, The Zendesk Resolution Platform, which will house Zendesk Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Builder, a QA module and AI Insights Hub to monitor AI agent performance, and Zendesk Employee Service Suite, which connects HCM and ITSM systems. The move, in our view, evens out the playing field and jumps ahead (with a CCaaS launch) of its closest rivals, Salesforce Service Cloud and ServiceNow.

Google CCaaS picking up steam. One of the biggest surprises from Enterprise Connect this year was the pace of innovation at Google and its renewed focus on CCaaS and AI (its CCAI product, powering conversational AI for several CCaaS providers, has seen difficulties scaling since the launch in 2019 while its partnership with UJET, announced in 2022, encountered some integration inertia with other Google products). Dave wrote about it in his EC’25 report.  The launch of Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI mainly consolidated existing assets — UJET-based CCaaS (CCAI Platform) and its Conversational AI products. In addition, Google made two notable announcements: a major expansion of its strategic partnership with Salesforce and the launch of three new Conversational AI products: 1) adding Google Gemini into Agentforce; 2) making Agentforce available on Google Cloud; and (3) enabling agent-to-agent intelligent handoffs, advancing AI interoperability. 

CPaaS. Twilio has been a big surprise over the past nine months, with the stock nearly tripling since September 2024. The company has finally entered the GAAP profitability spectrum (in 3Q24), throwing off healthy free cash flow as its retention rates in its communications business are also seeing a revival. Political campaign messaging helped drive strong revenue contribution toward the end of last year through early February, with strong Q1 results buttressing on-going momentum in the business. Overall, organic revenue grew 12% YoY (the highest in recent, post-pandemic history), gross margins (which are the point of long-standing investor contention) remained steady at 51.3%, albeit down from 54% a year ago, and dollar-based retention came in at 107% (also the highest in recent, post-pandemic history). Communications operating margins hit 25.3% and DBNER improved to 108%. Segment (CDP) revenue were flat (up 1% YoY), with losses paired down to a -2% operating margin. FCF margin rebounded to 15% (from 8% last quarter). The company also raised FY25 topline revenue growth guidance by 50bps (though only passed through a portion of the 1Q beat) and issued 2Q revenue guidance that was ~1% above Street. A number of GTM initiatives are panning out, with multiple products adoption and greater international exposure resuming. Twilio’s multi-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to accelerate adoption of Conversational AI solutions for customer engagement received notable praise from analysts and investors. The two companies plan to collaborate on developing conversational AI customer engagement solutions built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Twilio’s CX platform that combines communications, contextual data, and AI. In addition, Twilio introduced conversational AI enhancements—ConversationalRelay (a developer-focused platform for Voice AI agents using their choice of LLMs), and Conversational Intelligence (a multi-modal analytics and insights platform that analyzes conversations aimed at improving customer experiences and operational efficiency).

Bandwidth. On the other end of the spectrum, Bandwidth grew only 1.7% YoY in 1Q, down significantly from 27% growth in 4Q24, on the heels of strong political messaging contribution. Revenue grew 24% in 2024 but has flattened in 2025 with the resumption (to 13.5%) slated for 2026, according to consensus estimates. Despite the beat and slight raise, unfortunately for BAND, the headline numbers tell a different growth story than that when normalized for political campaigns management tried to hammer on its earnings, leaving the stock pretty volatile (though it is up ~20% since May 7 earnings) in an overall growth downtrend. Ex-political contribution, total revenue grew 7% YoY in 1Q (comprised of global voice plans growing 4%, enterprise voice 26%, and programmable messaging 9%). Customer metrics remained healthy with net retention rate (NRR was 116% in 1Q, up from 107% in a year ago period) and average customer revenue improving by 20%. Gross margins also continued to scale up, due to better product mix and operational efficiencies, ending up at 59%, up 2 points from a year ago.  Adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 17%.

Sadly, EC’25 was dead on arrival. It was surprising how muted EC conference participation was this year in terms of vendor attendance, groundbreaking announcements, new entrants, or investor interest—it felt to me that after 17 strong years EC conference has hit the lows, with the bottom nowhere in sight. Apart from new agentic AI features, product innovations generally appear to be slowing across the board, with the pandemic "boom years" well in the rearview mirror. Moving the show to LV should help instill better Silicon Valley VC/startup presence in my view. Voice AI and CX AI agents are seeing enormous VC capital infusion currently with every marquee VC building own, self-serving market maps. This should revamp the industry and create a more fertile ground for innovation at this long-standing trade show in 2026.

Charter and Cox Merge: Charter Communications has announced a $34.5B acquisition of Cox Communications, aiming to create the largest US cable and broadband provider. The combined entity will serve over 37 million customers across 48 states, enhancing its competitive edge against streaming services and mobile internet providers. The merger could enhance Charter’s content-buying power and service offerings, though it is unlikely to reverse the trend toward streaming.

Builder.ai Implodes After Revenue Overstatement: UK-based Builder.ai, once a $1B AI darling backed by Microsoft and SoftBank, has collapsed after internal reviews slashed its reported 2024 revenue from $220M to just $55M. Financial sleight of hand triggered default clauses and insolvency. It’s a cautionary tale for investors chasing fast-paced GenAI startups.

Verizon Acquires Frontier Communications: Verizon secured FCC approval for its nearly $10B acquisition of Frontier Communications after agreeing to scale back certain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The deal includes commitments to expand fiber-optic services and address industry concerns over pricing and contracts. This acquisition aims to bolster Verizon’s broadband infrastructure and market reach.

European Telecoms Seek Mergers: European telecom companies, including Telenor and Telefónica, are exploring mergers in anticipation of relaxed EU competition regulations. The move aims to create “European champions” capable of competing globally, addressing the fragmented nature of the European telecom market.

Salesforce/Informatica: Salesforce will acquire Informatica for $8.8B. The last time (that we know of) Salesforce made an acquisition was in 2020, when it acquired Slack for $27.7B. That wound still hurts, but it has mustered the will to open its wallet a little bit. Yes, of course, there’s an AI angle; the deal is expected to boost Salesforce's efforts in deploying AI agents inside companies.

Leadership Changes

Missed in the April Insider: Co-CEO is now CEO. Vasili Triant (also former COO) was tapped to lead UJET’s “next phase of growth.” Founder Anand Janefalkar takes on the role of Chief Evangelist. RingCentral has named Brandon Thomas to lead the RC channel partner program. He recently served as VP of Global Partner Success. He replaces Zane Long, who recently retired. Ashu Varshney moved from CIO (and other titles) to SVP of Product RingEX. 

Jack Chen is no longer the CEO of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise; Yann Zhang is. Zhang will be based in France. Sandrine El Khodry was named EVP of Sales and Marketing at ALE. Colby Nish, Head of Americas Sales, is no longer at Zoom. Einat Weiss is no longer the CMO of NICE. It’s hard to miss how many talented people have joined Logitech since Jedd Williams took the reins. Industry veterans John Latini and Kai Lehnert are the latest to join team Logi. Travis Pouliot was named Director of EX for Webex Suite and Devices at Cisco. Chris Barwick, VP Collaboration Strategy & GTM, is no longer at Cisco. Vonage named Christophe Van de Weyer as President and Head of Business Unit API. Ryan Nichols is no longer at Salesforce Service Cloud. He was there for 3.5 years, holding the roles of Chief Customer Officer, CPO, and GM of Contact Center. He intends to invest in Agentforce startups.

Techtelligence (part of UCToday) appointed Tim Banting, formerly of Omdia, as Head of Research & Business Intelligence. He will focus on turning customer feedback into actionable insights to help companies align with market trends and make smarter decisions. Mary McCahon joined Verint as Sr. Director of Analyst Relations. David Dungay, Editor-in-Chief, is departing Today Digital (UC Today).

Upcoming for Subscribers

• Deep Dive on Forrester CCaaS Wave
• Deep Dive on MDEP 

Meet Us

After both Dave and David attended ISE in Barcelona in February and Enterprise Connect in March, both Daves will again be together at InfoComm in Orlando, Florida, June 10-13. If you plan to attend the event and haven’t scheduled a briefing with us, please reach out. 

Dave Michels is Founder and Chief Protagonist at TalkingPointz and Editor in Chief of the Insider Report. [email protected]. David Danto is AV Aficionado at TalkingPointz. [email protected]. 

Upcoming Research from TalkingPointz: Deep Dives on EC25 and Video Interop events in May.

Goodreads

1. TikTok fined $600 million for China data transfers that broke EU privacy rules An EU privacy watchdog fined TikTok €530M after concluding the app transferred user data to China.
2. Will AI Empower the PR Industry or Create Endless Seas of Spam? Communications pros are trying everything from generating pitch emails with AI to using facial recognition technology for more accurate survey results.
3. Why 2025 may be a ‘gap year’ in gen AI, tech, media, and telecom Deloitte’s TMT Predictions 2025 report suggests that while generative AI holds promise, 2025 may serve as a transitional year.
4. AI Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse A new wave of “reasoning” systems from companies like OpenAI are producing incorrect information more often. Even the companies don’t know why.
5. Why Apple Still Hasn’t Cracked AI Insiders say continued failure to get artificial intelligence right threatens everything from the iPhone’s dominance to plans for robots and other futuristic products.
6. Microsoft Teams Collection of Students’ Biometric Data Provokes Concern in NSW What happens when IT Administrators accept Ts&Cs on behalf of students who are unaware.
7. Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents, and You’ll Never Guess What Happened Who would have thought?
8. A Brief (video) History of Skype by Matt Jordan on LinkedIn.
9. Zuckerberg’s new Meta AI app gets personal in a very creepy way Meta’s chatbot remembers everything, even what you might not want it to.
10. Klarna changes its AI tune and again recruits humans for customer service Over a year after claiming that its AI chatbot could do the work of 700 representatives, Klarna is turning back to people to help with customer service work.
11. The AI Revolution Is Underhyped | Eric Schmidt | TED YouTube: The arrival of non-human intelligence is a very big deal, says former Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt.
12. AI Side Hustles No One Talks About AI is quietly creating millionaires — while most people are still asleep to the opportunity.
13. The AI Revolution Just Got Real: OpenAI’s Operator Can Now Use Your Computer (And That Changes Everything) A deep dive into the tool that’s making AI truly useful — and why it matters more than you think.
14. Inside China’s ‘stolen iPhone building’ The roaring trade of mobiles grabbed in London and New York passes through a single district in Shenzhen.
15. Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, believes AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs.
16. Google AI at IO 20 AI solutions demonstrated at Google IO.
17. Verizon tries to get out of merger condition requiring it to unlock phones Verizon wants to escape promises it made in exchange for merger and spectrum.
18. $42.5B Broadband Grant Program Being Rewritten To Benefit Elon Musk Surprised?
19. Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the future of search, AI agents, and selling Chrome The head of Google discusses the next AI platform shift and how it could change how we use the internet forever.

Other Recent Stuff

Effective in 2025, we moved Insider Lite to Substack. You can view the most recent edition here. This is free content, and Substack makes things easier for everyone, but you will need to subscribe separately here. Insider Lites typically publish 1-3x a month.

• TalkingPointz Chatz May 2025 (Video — Sea Change in Search and Meetings)
• Who Will Buy Poly? (Dave Michels’ radar is pinging around HP Poly)
• A Dash of Irony: When AI Changed the Way We Write (When humans need to write badly to differentiate from AI)
• QSC’s iPhone Moment (Full stack AV becomes a reality)
• Your Devices Are Talking — But Not Just to You (Are you managing the data your systems are collecting?)
• Videoconferencing and Interoperability (whitepaper)
• TalkingPointz Deep Dive: Enterprise Connect 2025 (research note)
• Agentic AI and the Curious Case of Commander Data (When did society change our collective minds about machines replacing living beings?)
• Phone.com launches ProSIM (Video)
• 8x8: Game, Set, Match 
• Escalator Keynotes #EC25: Generative AI summarizes, but look how an escalator shortens keynotes. (Video)
• Choosing Wisely: How To Select Partners In AV and Collaboration (Should a supplier’s layoffs or hiring influence users’ buying decisions? )
• Adapt or Fade Away (SCN on how AV has to change)
• NAB 2025: A Tale of Two Events
• Shure at NAB (Video)
• IEEE’s Broadcast Technology Society at NAB (Video)

Recent Insider Reports (only new Insider Reports are behind the paywall) 

1. Insider Jan 2024
2. Insider Feb 2024
3. Insider March 2024
4. Insider April 20, 2024
5. Insider May 2024
6. Insider June 2024 
7. Insider July 2024
8. Insider August 2024
9. Insider September 2024
10. Insider October 2024
11. Insider November 2024
12. Insider December 2024
13. Insider January 2025
14. Insider February 2025
15. Insider March 2025
16. Insider April 2025

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Insider Reports offer timely, curated, and opinionated news. The Insider Report is published the first week of every month. Enterprise subscriptions also include TalkingPointz research notes. These reports are geared toward the industry itself, though some enterprises subscribe, too. Core subscribers are vendors, providers, consultants, and (financial and industry) analysts. TalkingPointz offers Enterprise-vendor, channel, consultant, and personal subscriptions.